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Mars Express Captures Phobos and Deimos

Posted by Soulskill on from the holding-for-ransom dept.

westtxfun writes "The Mars Express Orbiter captured a very cool movie of Phobos and Deimos on Nov 5. Besides the 'wow factor,' the images will be used to refine models of the moons' orbits. The orbiter has also captured high resolution images of Phobos back in July. 'The images were acquired with the Super Resolution Channel (SRC) of the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The camera took 130 images of the moons on 5 November at 9:14 CET in a span of 1.5 minutes at intervals of 1s, speeding up to 0.5-s intervals toward the end. The image resolution is 110 m/pixel for Phobos and 240 m/pixel for Deimos — Deimos was more than twice as far from the camera. '"

5 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Wow. by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's so weird when reality looks like bad Photoshop.

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    1. Re:Wow. by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 4, Informative

      Most "space images" are very heavily processed. If they took a normal picture it wouldn't look nearly as good. NASA learned a long time ago that its only reason for getting funded (besides being a jobs program) was making pretty pictures.

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  2. Re:Ask slashdot by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please, forgive my ignorance (physics is not my field): What orbit model is going to be refined? I've always thought that planetary movements were resolved centuries ago

    Solar radiation and the solar "wind" has an effect on smaller bodies, such as those moons. The effects vary depending on the color, composition, and texture of the moons' surfaces. We need better models to know their impact on orbits. Relativity may also have a very minor impact on orbital changes.
         

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  3. action films by f3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's sad that we are so used to action and sci-fi films with amazing simulations of astonishing things, that when it comes to the real one (a piece of rock which really exists up there, and IS cool) we think we are seeing the intro for a 1985 asteroid game, and think for ourselves 'where are the explosions? I myself had to do an effort to rationally avoid that thinking and covince myself of the real coolness of the thing.

  4. Re:Nice mission overall by tftp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What I can't understand is why they're still inventing whole lander thing when technology for safe landing (and going back up) of people is tried FORTY years ago?!!

    We know how to land in dense atmosphere (Earth, Venus) and in vacuum (the Moon). But there are no good solutions for landing in thin atmosphere (Mars). You can't use a parachute because there isn't enough atmosphere for it, and you can't use a rocket engine because incoming flow of atmospheric gases interferes with the engine (extinguishes flame and creates oscillations like in a whistle.) That's why robots are just dropped on Mars in a big airbag. But the deceleration is too high for a human.